Who Done It?
by zenniel
Summary: Rated T for gore and cussing in later chapters. "A mystery story. A murder mystery." Andrea explained. "Everyone picks who they think others should be and then I tell a murder story how you guys picked it."
1. Who's Who

**I decided to trail off the beaten path a little bit. This will be multi-chaptered, a different sort of story than I usually write. Slightly AU because Shane's not dead. Enjoy~**

"Shane, you're the body." Andrea said one night as she pushed her hands closer to the dwindling fire.

"Excuse me… what?" Shane asked, instantly alert, his hands on the pommel of his ever-present gun.

Andrea laughed and Beth giggled, instantly in on the idea Andrea had planned. "Who done it!" Andrea said, smiling. "You've never heard of that game?"

"Well, yeah," Shane shrugged, dropping his hand, "I heard you talkin' about it all conspiratorially with Beth. What's it?"

"A mystery story." Andrea explained. "Everyone picks who they think others should be and then I tell a murder story how you guys picked it." Andrea grinned and saw Lori and Carol and even Glenn grinning, too. "It's a _murder_ mystery."

"Then why the hell I gotta be the dead guy?" Shane grunted out.

"'Cuz yer annoyin' as hell t' listen to." Daryl glowered at the squirrel bone he held in his hand. "Better off dead."

"Shuddup, hick." Shane muttered but there was a clear undertone of jest. He turned back to Andrea. "Fine, I'll be the dead person. But _you're_ the detective's lover."

Andrea wrinkled her nose but nodded, "Deal. Alright, who's Lori?"

Glenn spoke up, laughing as Maggie elbowed him in the ribs, clearly not liking his choice. "Shane's lover."

Though the thought struck close to home by the look in Shane and Rick's eyes, Lori was laughing. "Alright, then you're a wise-cracking police officer who no one really takes seriously."

While Glenn groaned and Maggie laughed, Andrea continued. "OK, what about T-Dog?"

"He's a suspect, a'course." Daryl said, gnawing on the squirrel bone. "Was with Shane a'fore he died."

"What the _hell_, Daryl." T-Dog groaned. But he was smiling. "Alright, then. _You're_ the detective on the case."

Beth was giggling again and she leaned close to Andrea to whisper, "Andrea and Daryl, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

Daryl threw the squirrel bone at her and she shrieked out a laugh. Then the whole group was cracking up. No one seemed to notice the blush spread across Andrea's face or the way Daryl tensed up.

"The hell I'm a detective." Daryl growled out, digressing.

"Makes sense." Rick shrugged, "You're the best tracker."

"Alright, Daryl's the detective and I'm his lover." Andrea agreed, shaking her head, laughter and embarrassment mixing together curiously. "So who's Rick?"

"An eye-witness no one believes." Maggie offered.

Rick shrugged, "Fine with me. Then Maggie's an escaped convict who might be a suspect."

Glen was obviously trying not to laugh but Maggie elbowed him again anyway. Beth spoke up then, "And Dad's the police leader."

"Captain of the force?" Rick asked for clarification.

"Sure, that." Beth nodded.

"Hey, I don't want to be in any of this." Hershel stated in his wise voice. He was obviously just beginning to retire for the night.

"If ya don't wanna, old man, no one's stoppin' ya. But I'd say yer job's cool." Daryl shrugged.

Shane grinned, "Yeah, you get to boss Daryl around."

Hershel thought for a moment and then shrugged. "Sure, why not. I'll be the police captain. Then Beth's the daughter of Lori and Shane."

"What?" Several voices cried in surprise.

Andrea laughed at the look on Beth's face. "Okay then, Beth's the daughter. Probably adopted, but the daughter nonetheless. That leaves Carol and Carl."

Carol looked up in surprise and Carl crowed with delight because he was suddenly allowed to partake in this. Instantly, he cried out, "Carol's the owner of the _farm_ Shane died on!"

Carol blinked and then shrugged. "Well that's a surprise. Um, okay. Carl's an eye-witness, too. But he's a kid. Dunno if people would trust him or not."

"Aw, come on," Glenn grinned, "Just _look_ at him! Who wouldn't trust _this_ kid?"

People laughed hard at that and it took a while for them to quiet down. Finally, Andrea raised her voice, "Alright, alright!" When people quieted down, she looked at them. "Ready for me to begin?"

"S'long as you make it good." Shane growled.

Andrea grinned almost malignantly, "Oh, it'll be good."


	2. Crime Scene Introduction

Before she began, Andrea requested a piece of paper and a pencil to which she got a pad of paper and a pen. At least the pen worked. She quickly wrote down the names of everyone around the campfire and who they were in this little story for the human mind is a fickle creature and sometimes deems things unworthy of remembering. It wouldn't be hard to remember Daryl as the detective, but some of the others had lesser roles in this story, so she needed to make sure she stayed true to the original casting. The firelight lent only enough light so she could barely make out the page; she'd have to rewrite it in the morning.

As if she was taking too long, Daryl coughed and declared. "It ain't gonna be night forever."

"Hold your horses." Andrea retorted and was pretty sure people were wondering why Daryl hadn't yelled back at her. "I'm just finishing it up. There. Alright, let's see. Shane's death..."

* * *

"The boy and the man saw a black man leave the barn only ten minutes before the body was found." Andrea started, putting down the pad of paper and the pen, "No one really thought anything about his sudden absence because no one knew what had happened yet. The black man didn't even have anything on him and he didn't look conspicuous; he just looked like he was heading home for the evening. The barn was very nearly secluded and the only people who went in there were workers and helpers of the farm. The farm was owned by Carol, a nice lady who treated all of the animals on the farm with love and kindness, much like she treated the people who came to the farm.

"Because she daily made her rounds to see her horses and make sure her pigs were fed, it was Carol who stumbled upon the body. There was blood everywhere. It was both on the body and littering the ground. There were also blood spurts everywhere, rendering the fine hay Carol used to feed her animals useless. Carol screamed.

"Someone called the cops, of course. We don't have walkers anywhere near this story." Andrea joked and everyone smiled. "Therefore, we still have cops."

"And running water, and heat, and, oh God, movies." Carol mused. There was some agreement amongst the others (Glenn in particular voiced his need to play a video game), but it died down again as Andrea picked up where she left.

"Anyway, Detective Daryl Dixon arrived on scene and surveyed the carnage with a practiced eye. He had to pick his way across the crime scene because any slight misuse of evidence could throw the scene off. The scene was swarming with what he liked to call 'underlings' or 'just plain stupid' and what was worse was that they paid little attention to him. He was a good detective, naturally good at tracking things down and finding connections to clues that might have been unrelated to other people. Daryl picked his way through the crime scene, ignoring or scowling at any 'just plain stupids' that might have crossed his path, and arrived at the body.

"The coroner was already there. He was an old man, wise beyond his years, but he had a bad case of creaky bones and was known to whine too much. 'Cause of death seems to be a large cut through the tracheal artery, though this is inconclusive until I take him back to the lab.' The coroner told Daryl.

"Daryl nodded and looked over to the part of the crime scene that didn't include the body, eager to study it."

* * *

Andrea broke out of the story then and picked up her notebook before saying, "Alright, I'll need three different clues for Daryl."

"Bloody footprint," T-Dog shrugged out. Andrea wrote it down.

"A knife left at the crime scene," Rick offered; twirling one of his own knives in his hand. Lori looked at him with an undecipherable look on her face. But Andrea wrote it down anyway.

"What is this, a modified version of Blue's Clues?" Maggie joked out, shaking her head.

"A bloody fingerprint or two!" Glenn crowed like a child the same time Maggie finished. Maggie rolled her eyes. Andrea wrote that down, too.

"This is good and all, but I think it's time for us to be gettin' to bed, kids." Hershel mused as he stood up and retreated from the fire's glow. Reluctantly, the others also stood and headed to bed one by one.

In the end it was only Daryl, Carol, and Andrea left. Carol stood up, looked at both of them, and asked in her strange, motherly tone, "Whose idea was it to have you two as lovers again?"

"Not me, woman." Daryl growled, "Wuz Shane, remember? Yer memory's gotta be horrid."

Carol shook her head knowingly and left, which left behind a very confused Daryl and a slightly smiling Andrea. When he turned to glare at her, she forced herself to smile wider just to annoy him. He looked cute when he was mad, the way his lips turned, his eyes squinted.

"What'choo lookin' at, Blondie?" He growled before stalking off. Andrea couldn't help but watch him as he walked away, that smile still plastered on her face. Finally, she kicked dirt into the fire, watching it flicker out, before finding her way to her tent in the dark.


End file.
